Book Review: The Velvet Underground’s story and afterlife told in the oral history ‘Loaded’

Before they became synonymous with downtown cool, the Velvet Underground played a multi-band bill at a suburban New Jersey high school in 1965. Parents and kids in the crowd were repelled by the “screeching urge of sound” from Lou Reed and his bandmates, a local reviewer wrote, and retreated in horror after their second song, “Heroin.” The Velvet Underground soon found a more appreciative audience when artist Andy Warhol spotted them and set them up at the Factory, his Manhattan studio-and-happening space. Veteran journalist and author Dylan Jones tells that unusual story in “Loaded: The Life of The Velvet Underground.” Or more precisely, Jones weaves together an oral history that relies on the voices of friends, Warhol “superstars,” fellow musicians and members of the band. Reed finally began getting his due in 1972 with the release of the “Transformer” album, which included the signature song “Walk On the Wild Side.” Good oral histories hit the right mix of insight, opinion and dish. “Unpack the last 50 years of pop,” Jones writes, “and the broken fragments of the Velvet Underground are everywhere.” ___ AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews